Fifty turn out for meeting to protest possible Iraq war

Vietnam war veteran Frank Ackles remembers the tragedy of the war in Southeast Asia. He sees no reason to repeat it in Iraq.

"In war, there is no honor," Ackles told a crowd of 50 people who gathered at the Osage Community Centre in Cape Girardeau on Saturday night to protest what they see as the Bush administration's looming war with Iraq. A banner hung on the wall proclaimed, "Peace is patriotic."

"With war, there are no winners, only losers," the ex-Marine said. Ackles, of St. Louis, is a member of Veterans for Peace, a group that has over 3,000 members nationwide.

If the United States invades Iraq, thousands of innocent Iraqis will die, American lives will be endangered and the end result would be an escalation of violence in the Middle East, Ackles said.

Ackles said the Bush administration hasn't shown that Iraq is linked in any way to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States or that Saddam Hussein's regime has nuclear weapons.

Ackles worries that the Bush administration will find an excuse to go to war in violation of the United Nations charter.

"With the threat of war looming, our nation is facing a crisis," he said.

Saturday's meeting was organized by the Southeast Missouri Coalition for Peace and Justice. Organizers said the group, which holds candlelight vigils weekly across from the Federal Building in Cape Girardeau, has about 90 members in the region.

Many in the crowd said they were pleased with Saturday's turnout.

"This is the way a democracy works," said Lance Walters, who attended Southeast Missouri State University during the Vietnam War and now lives in Waxahachie, Texas.

Walters, who is in Cape Girardeau visiting relatives, said antiwar meetings at the school attracted few students or faculty in the late 1960s.

This time, he senses more Americans are willing to speak out against war.

Robert Polack, an assistant professor of social work at Southeast, said there is a growing peace movement around the world and even in Cape Girardeau.

"Dissent is patriotic too," he said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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